Friday, 2 May 2014

Urban Economics: student bleg

Kiwis finishing up their undergraduate Economics degrees and interested in doing a Masters in Economics at Canterbury should get in touch with me: I'd be interested in supervising a thesis looking at local urban planning issues around Auckland. Blog readers know the kinds of urban topics I like; if you want me as supervisor, drop me a note, but read the caveat below.

The closing deadline for scholarship applications is 30 May.

The Economics Department here at Canterbury is currently undergoing a redundancy process; I should know whether or not I will continue to be here prior to the closing date for applications. Updates will be provided when uncertainty is resolved: I am definitely not going to take on any new graduate supervision unless uncertainty is resolved favourably. But we expect resolution on or about 20 May.

Pre-quake, we were a Department of 19.6 full-time equivalent academic staff, including 2 Teaching Fellows. Subsequent to post-quake departures and encouraged early retirements, we are a Department of 12.6 full-time equivalent academic staff, including 2 Teaching Fellows. Subsequent to the forthcoming change proposal, should all go as currently proposed, we will be a Department of 9.6 full-time equivalent academic staff, including 2 Teaching Fellows.

Interesting times. Navigating these waters has taken much of my time lately; apologies for the light blogging.

2 comments:

Ugh, good luck, Eric. Layoffs are never fun. Our firm had its first in 17 years a couple years ago, and it was very unpleasant (and handled quite poorly by the company as well). A 50% reduction in staff in a few short years is staggering, though!

Well.. I guess I'm not surprised that persons with enough clue to be interested in 'orthodox'/real economics chose to stay away from Canterbury. But is Dunedin really that much more profit maximising (Auckland and Shitbagpoliticianville don't even come into it)?

I'm sure the BFA is safe. God only knows what's happening to the real degrees Canterbury offers (besides Engineering). Just how screwed over are the Geology and Physics departments getting?